Course content

The course introduces fundamental methods and principles for designing, implementing, and evaluating user interfaces. The students are introduced to design thinking, processes, and protoyping tools that will support them in developing possible software solutions. The proposed solutions will be based on identifying problems and needs of specific groups of users. To evaluate their proposed solutions, the students will learn and use evaluation techniques that span from expert evaluations to usability testing in the lab or field to remote usability testing. Throughout the course, the students develop an understanding of the iterative design process and learn how to document their work in each phase of the UCD process.

Topics:

• User-centered design principles
• Iterative design processes
• Design research methods
• Ideation techniques
• Prototyping (e.g., wireframes)
• User testing and evaluation methods

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The student:

• Has fundamental knowledge about what user-centered design is and what phases, methods and principles are at the core of a user-centered design
• Has fundamental knowledge about the terms User-Centered Design (UCD), User eXperience (UX), and User Interface (UI).
• Has fundamental knowledge about regulations regarding research ethics and GDPR as it relates to a researcher handling possible person-sensitive data
• Has fundamental knowledge about how to design websites and applications to comply with the Regulation for universal design of information and communication technology (ICT) by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Skills

The student can:

• Analyse end-users' needs regarding user interface design in software solutions
• and identify issues in existing designs
• Create wireframes and protoype the user interface for a proposed software product
• Use creative techniques to develop solutions to established problems
• Apply principles for universal design in their prototypes
• Prepare an Informed Consent Form
• Document a design project in a simple formal report

• Evaluate when and how to appropriatley use AI tools for ideation, wireframing and report writting

General competence

The student

• Has the ability to participate in a group-based project and assume different expert roles
• Can analyze and agree on a project topic/task as a group and execute the work according to the syllabus
• Can recruit representative end-users that suit the task at hand and perform user testing with this group

Learning methods and activities

Lectures and group work.

Specific conditions

Credit reductions